THE SEARCH ENGINE REPORTNovember 4, 2002 - Number 72

The Search Engine Report is a monthly newsletter that covers developments with search engines and changes to the Search Engine Watch web site, http://searchenginewatch.com/. You may pass this newsletter on to others, as long either part is sent in its entirety.

Did you know that there's a longer, more in-depth version of this newsletter? The twice-monthly "Search Engine Update" newsletter is just one of the many benefits available to Search Engine Watch members Learn more about the advantages to becoming a member at this page:

Normally I do a recap of interesting search engine articles from across the web. However, I ran short of time to complete the recap for this edition of the newsletter. It took longer than I expected to finish two complicated articles about paid inclusion at AltaVista and the lawsuit filed against Google over PageRank values, not to mention that we conducted a new relevancy study across the major search engines that has just been posted today. Don't worry -- I'll planning a special mid-month mailing on Nov. 18. to catch you up on any important articles. In the meantime, I think you'll find plenty to read in this issue!

Missed the Search Engine Strategies shows that were held in the United States earlier this year? You've got one more chance to attend in 2003, when the show comes to Dallas on Dec. 11 & 12. The SES show provides a variety of sessions about improving editorial listings in search engines and how to advertise effectively on them. Both search engine marketing experts and representatives from major search engines themselves will be speaking, including Ask Jeeves/Teoma, Inktomi, LookSmart and Yahoo, so far. More information and the ability to sign-up can be found via the URL below:

After months of speculation, Yahoo announced last week that it has renewed its relationship to use Google's results as part of its search listings. In addition, Yahoo made a substantial change to end its historic barrier between human-powered and crawler-based search results. The article below provides full details about how Yahoo is now essentially powered by Google.

Google finds itself now being sued by a site owner who saw a decrease in the "PageRank" score reported to those who use the Google Toolbar. He claims Google penalized him unfairly, because he was running a network designed to broker links between sites with high PageRank. Others might feel Google, if the allegations of penalties are true, acted in self-defense. A look at the case, issues it raises and the overall "linking lunacy" that it epitomizes

Last month, a Harvard Law School study brought to light that fact Google does not include certain web sites in the French and German versions of its search engines, in particular neo-Nazi or white supremacy sites that have content that might be deemed illegal to publish in France and Germany. It should be noted that similar filtering may be happening at other search engines, but the study only encompassed a look at Google. A look at the situation can be found via the article below:

Last month, I wrote about how an AltaVista sales representative had pitched the company's "Trusted Feed" paid inclusion program as a way to get a guaranteed top rankings. AltaVista quickly denied that this was the case, repeatedly emphasizing that content in the program is not given any ranking boost over content that AltaVista's crawler-technology finds and lists for free. Despite this, it turns out that Trusted Feed content may indeed get a bump into the top results, in the right circumstances. The story can be found below:

Genealogy searching is definitely NOT my specialty, but I've been told that for those who are trying to track down their roots, Origin Search is supposed to be a wonderful new resource. Founder and CEO Ian Galbraith says that the specialty search engine is designed to find web pages that contain genealogical information and covers over 300 million names from around the world. The service launched in August with 6 million web pages indexed, and that figure will rise to 8 million this month, raising coverage to an estimated 1/2 billion names. Next year, more coverage of non-English language web sites and multilingual searching support is promised. This is a subscription service -- you pay US $5 for 24 hours of use or $15 for 2 weeks. Want to try before you buy? Use the "Irish Origins" link at the bottom of the home page to see how the service works for Irish-only information.

At some point, I plan a longer write-up about Quigo and YourAmigo. Both offer some interesting new ways to feed dynamic content into search engines via XML feeds. If you need such a solution, consider checking them out.

=========================SearchDay Articles=========================

Here are some recent articles that may be of interest, from Search Engine Watch's daily SearchDay newsletter:

Overture's Auto Bid program is designed to ensure that you do not pay more a penny more than necessary to get the top position for your search terms, but you need to understand the subtleties of the program to avoid unpleasant surprises.

Search engines should set standards and adhere to them, say webmasters, advertisers and a senior attorney for the Federal Trade Commission. Uniform standards would serve both web site owners and searchers.

Worried that your personal details may be stored away in a database that anyone can search? Two public records search experts set the record straight on what exactly is -- and is not -- included in "big brother" databases.

Very interesting behind-the-scenes account of being a researcher for the Google Answers program. A changed policy of not paying researchers if customers didn't like the answers they got caused this person to avoid difficult questions. The conclusion seems to be that Google Answers is evolving into a program that gets people answers they could find on Google themselves, if they had the time or skill, rather than being a research service that tries to verify facts and tackle difficult questions that cannot necessarily be answered easily through web searching.

LookSmart investors unhappy with the company's performance are targeting Merrill Lynch in a class action lawsuit, saying the firm failed to disclose a conflict of interest when issuing "buy" recommendations.

Once again it slips out that Google might consider charging for search, this time to perhaps to provide a custom enterprise news search option. Google proactively tells me there's no particular push in this direction, and that the idea is being played up in this story far more than they are thinking about it. That wouldn't be surprising. I believe it was last year that a similar "Google to charge for search" story showed up via News.com, and plans have yet to materialize. Don't discount the notion, of course. Google absolutely is thinking about such ideas -- but Google is thinking of many other ways to earn money, as well.

Meanwhile, my favorite part of this article is the analyst who declares that Google needs to do paid search because "the internet advertising model has been shown not to work." Hmm -- apparently paid listings don't fit into his idea of what the internet advertising model encompasses. That's too bad, because paid listings are not only working but they are bringing in plenty of money for Google and Overture.

Another unnamed analyst promises a "shake out" in search with only Google and Overture remaining standing. Gee -- assuming we buy into this, I can see Google standing -- but Overture? Overture gets about 95 percent of its traffic from partner search sites, not its own. Other search sites have to exist for Overture to survive, so perhaps that shake out will be a little less dramatic than this analyst is predicting. Crack reporting from my daily newspaper -- maybe I'll have to start taking The Times.

The U.K. Supreme Court has granted permission in part for Google to appeal against a ruling relating to a dispute over the user information through cookies via use of the Apple Safari browser.
0 Comments